


Suddenly There's Sunlight All Around Me (And For a Moment I Forget)

by Draco_sollicitus



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Damerey Daily, Death, F/M, Greek Mythology AU, Inspired by Orpheus and Eurydice (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Prompt Fill, Romance, Underworld, myth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22152340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus
Summary: They say none played so beautifully as Poe, legendary musician and devoted husband. But when Death claimed the life of his love too soon, Poe followed her soul into the Underworld to beg the gods to return his Rey to him.(Orpheus and Eurydice AU)
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 17
Kudos: 90
Collections: Damerey Daily 2020





	Suddenly There's Sunlight All Around Me (And For a Moment I Forget)

**Author's Note:**

> For Damerey Daily Prompt 6: "Say that you'll hold me forever / say that the winds won't change on us" from "All I've Ever Known" from the musical Hadestown.  
> Title of the fic comes from the same song!
> 
> This is not my first Damerey greek myth au, but it is a little different than the others.

On the day he was married, it is said that the legendary musician Poe played and sang so beautifully the trees themselves wept.

It was there in the clearing that his wife, Rey, more lovely than any mortal woman alive, danced with the naiads and the gods smiled on them, as pleasing and beautiful as they were in their youth. 

Poe laid his wife down in a meadow that night as the sun slipped behind the horizon and the Hesperides painted a glorious sunset over the lovers, and he held her face and kissed her with such tenderness that had never before been seen in all the lands.

They whispered of love in the clearing, love and happy thoughts of forever, and after Poe had woven flowers through his wife’s hair, Rey stood and danced once more, this time towards the home that Poe had built for them at the corner of the woods.

He had been at war as a youth, fighting for peace and tranquility, and he was a talented fighter to be sure - but it was his music that the gods truly gifted him. If you were to task the man himself, however, he would claim no greater gift than the love of his wife, and they were, for some time, happy in their little home at the edge of the wood.

They had not been married half a year before someone came to the clearing one evening as Rey danced and Poe sang; cruel were the eyes of Kylo Ren, and how he longed to possess Rey for himself.

He waited until Poe walked through the wood one day and approached Rey as she sat in the meadow. Kylo Ren offered her his hand, but Rey refused him. He offered it again, and still she held firm - it was when he offered and was refused thrice that he moved to anger. Kylo grabbed his weapon with a roar of fury which shook birds from the trees and echoed throughout the wood - and Poe heard this sound of hatred although he was near a mile away.

Poe rushed to the cottage at the corner of the wood, but Rey was not defenseless as he ran; she seized her husband’s weapon from his days at war and fought back the wicked Kylo Ren. When she had fought him off, she turned and ran for although Rey was strong, she was fleet of foot and understood she had better chance of escape.

Kylo Ren chased her through the meadow, and Rey gained further distance from him - but her steps were not as careful as they had been, and she stepped upon a serpent that slumbered in the grass. The venomous viper awoke and bit the woman, who cried in agony and fell. Realizing that he had chased the woman unto death, Kylo Ren watched her torment without remorse and, hearing her husband shouting for her, turned and left Rey in the meadow.

Poe arrived in time to hold his wife as she struggled to draw breath- she told him the story of how she had died, and Poe trembled with fury, but mostly with grief for he understood his wife was dying. She exhaled one last time, and the lights left her bright eyes, her skin turning grey and her body cold in his arms. Poe wailed and wept, crying out for his wife, but she was lost to him.

How he wished it were him who had died, but the serpent was no longer there for him to find and beg for death so he might join his bride. Hearing his torment, the naiads who had danced with his wife on their wedding day approached him in the night, whispering of a path to the Underworld, where he might be able to retrieve his wife.

With not a thing left to lose, Poe gathered his traveling cloak and lyre and allowed the naiads to lead him to the entrance to Hades, and he wandered down, down, down into the dark, through the cold and loneliness that welcome all who journey down below before their time. 

When he came upon the monstrous beast who guarded the realm of Hades, the three-headed beast named Cerberus, Poe played his lyre so beautifully, pouring some of his sadness into the song, that the dog fell asleep at once and Poe passed unhindered.

Shades and souls pulled at his cloak as he walked - some recognized him from life and wished to hear music once more. Others sought the warmth of the handsome youth, but Poe would not stop for any, not until he found himself in the court of the King and Queen of the Underworld.

Cassian greeted him with a cold respect, his eyes hard but not unkind. But it was to his Queen that Poe made his plea, begging Jyn for mercy. But the Queen of the Underworld did not often change her mind, and her nature typically dissuaded her from bending to the will of would-be heroes. 

But when Poe pulled forth his lyre and sang a song he had composed for his wife, his grief and love saturated the melody, creating a tapestry of misfortune and pain that brought all to tears, Cassian first, then his attendants, and then, at last, the Queen. Jyn wept from her eyes which were richer green than all the emeralds her husband could call forth from the earth, and in those tears Poe found salvation.

She offered, with her husband’s blessing, a test of Poe’s love. Lead Rey to the entrance of the Underworld, and she would be returned to life. Poe wept at the generosity of the Queen, but she also offered him a warning: if he were to turn around to ensure his wife followed him, she would be dragged back into Hell for all eternity. 

With no other choice, Poe accepted the offer graciously, and with that the flickering form of his wife appeared to him. Poe wept the harder for having seen her, and slung his lyre to his back, rushing forward to embrace her. Rey’s voice was lost to the Shades, however, and she could do nothing but whisper his name. Jyn warned him that it was time to leave, and Poe nodded, thanked the Queen and King once more, and left the court.

As he walked back to the surface, Poe moved from the intense confidence that had benefited him so much as a youth at war towards a gut-wrenching despair and doubt, worsened by whispers that followed him as he neared Cerberus’s post.

The voices begged him to turn around, insisted that he question the Queen’s mercy, reminded him of the fickleness of the gods, but Poe knew of Jyn and Cassian from his father’s stories and knew that they were not liars. Thus, he steeled himself against doubt and told himself he could feel his wife’s presence at his back. 

They walked for a time that felt much longer than the time it had taken him to enter the Underworld, and the shadows lengthened around him.

Poe spoke to his wife, telling her of his love for her, his joy to be near her again, but still: no answer. He told her of his private desire to have children by her, how he longed to hold her as their sons and daughters played in the meadow, but still: no answer. Poe reminded her of the promise he had made to her on their wedding night, his promise of forever, but still: no answer.

At the end of their journey with the world of the living in sight, Poe’s steps faltered as it seemed to him his wife’s voice screamed for him from a far distance, not unlike the afternoon she had perished in his arms after the cruelty of Kylo Ren. Poe closed his eyes and felt the scream pass through him like a sword. He yearned to turn around, ached for it, tempted thoroughly to ensure that she was truly there:

But he forced himself to keep walking, and when he was well into the clearing at the entrance of the Underworld, he turned and saw his wife emerge from the cave as well, her face lovely and radiant, her form growing rapidly solid. 

She cried out to him at the same time he cried out to her, and they rushed towards one another, embracing each other with much crying and rejoicing under the stars. Poe took his wife into his arms and kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her, and thanked the gods for their mercy in the depths of his heart.

And from that day forward, Poe’s music was imbued with such joy and grace that all the birds of the air and beasts of the land and sea would stop to listen when he played; his songs were oft dedicated to Jyn, Queen of the Underworld, and his wife, Rey, who he loved as no man had ever loved his wife before. And they were, at long last, happy.

Many years later, when death claimed them both, they were reunited in the Underworld, where Poe played his music for the Queen and King and his wife danced with joy; they were happy under the Earth, as Poe had promised his wife to love her forever, and under the generosity of Jyn, he was allowed to keep that promise.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading the story of Poe-rpheus and Eu-rey-dice <3
> 
> (clearly my love for mythology continues, whoops)


End file.
